Capital City Toastmasters Meeting Recap - July 15, 2010

Submitted by Jillian Bowlin

Today's Theme: What's Your Passion

Andrew Soloninka introduced Mike Eaves as the toastmaster of the meeting with much alacrity (see word of the day below). We learned more about each member with a role today as Mike shared each response to theme, “What’s your passion?”

Jillian Bowlin gave the invocation and shared these words from Walt Disney: “Every Child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it.” Wade Hudson followed with a great joke to start the day with laughter. Kelly Lingerfelt selected Alacrity as the word of the day. Alacrity is a noun, meaning cheerful, readiness, promptness or willingness. Chuck Roylston added a little humor of his own as he introduced the time parameters for the meeting and we were ready for the three excellent speeches for the day.

New member Chris Colburn gave his ice breaker speech and talked about his time at Appalachian State on the Rugby team and how it has played a role in his life.

Andrew Soloninka delved back into his past in high school when he longed for a letter jacket. He shared his feelings of excitement and accomplishment as beat a rival school in a track meet.

Ariel Ward gave her speech “how to choose a financial advisor” and provided the questions people should ask when selecting the right advisor.

With 3 speeches completed, Carrie Karcher called on Johnny Carr, Cameron Henley and Lesley Cates to speak extemporaneously in the table topics portion of the meeting. All three met their time parameters and used the word of the day.

After a silent sigh of relief from those not called to speak in table topics, three fantastic evaluations were given to the speakers and fellow toastmasters to refine and fine-tune different elements in speaking. Gwen Vass, Colleen Slaughter and Martin Rock described what worked well in each speech and what areas could use improvement.

Sara Salek gave the Grammarian’s report and Chris Richter evaluated the overall meeting. Mike Eaves then presented the awards for the meeting:

Best Table Topics: Lesley Cates
Best Evaluator: Martin Rock
Best Speaker: Chris Colburn, Andrew Soloninka and Ariel Ward (yes, a three-way tie!)

Nineteen members and four guests were present at the meeting. Guests included repeat visitors Sonny, Tommy and Jon and first-time visitor Codjo.